An Early Festivus

Source: www.tumblr.com

In the wake of the busting of my forecast for yesterday (see previous post) and the attainment of 100ºF at the Salt Lake City airport, the Wasatch Weather Weenies will be celebrating an early Festivus and airing our grievances today.  

Mainly I just want to belly ache about my blown forecast.  In forecast contests, I have certainly taken advantage of the tendency for the Salt Lake City International Airport (KSLC) observing site to go crazy warm in strong southerly flow, but yesterday's 100ºF was ridiculous.  I still don't believe it!  The afternoon sounding shows a convective boundary layer that extends all the way to 500 mb and a super adiabatic layer near the surface where the temperature was 96ºF.  

Source: NOAA/NWS/SPC

Such a layer is absolutely unstable and difficult to maintain.  Thus, getting a few more degrees out of such as sounding is difficult, especially when the winds are strong.  Yet it happened yesterday at the airport.  Curses.  Two laps around the Festivus pole.  

Because of this Festivus celebration, I am introducing a new subject tag for Wasatch Weather Weenies posts: Belly Aching.  We will try to keep these to a minimum, but such activities are part of every meteorologists repertoire, especially mine.